Archeaopteryx
D) Mammals
Today we recognize mammals by four basic features:
1)
2)
3)
4)
E) The Cretaceous Mass Extinction and the Death of the Dinosaurs At the close of the
Cretaceous, a great mass extinction occurred. Although not of the magnitude of th

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
2) Warm Blooded Dinosaurs Since the 1970s, an argument has been
ongoing between dinosaur experts as to whether dinosaurs could control or
maintain their body heat. There is some evidence to indicate that at least
some dinosaurs were truly e

B) Plants
a) Angiosperms
C) Reptiles The reptiles diversified rapidly during the Paleozoic and from this early
group of reptiles came dinosaurs, birds, crocodiles, and all modern lizards.
a) archosaurs
1) dinosaurs
a) Saurischia have a lizard-like pel

I. Mesozoic Life - While most people think of the Mesozoic as the Age of Dinosaurs, life was
actually much more diverse. Plants were changing during the Mesozoic and mammals were
rapidly diversifying. In the oceans, a myriad of creatures evolved to take t

3) Gulf Coastal Region
4) Western Region - As we have already mentioned, the Mesozoic in North
America is really the history of the Rocky Mountains. This is a complex history
involving many ocean-continental collisions as volcanic arcs collided and then

GEOLOGY 1404 NOTES OUTLINE II-B
THE MESOZOIC
I. Mesozoic of North America -Just as the Paleozoic times wrote the history of the development
of the Appalachian Mountains; the Mesozoic times would write the history of the development of
the Rocky Mountains.